Dirt Clods

I was chastised for not posting any Easter pics of the girls on last week's blog so here it is! 

This week was great, and we rounded it off with a wonderful weekend. Addie and Ali had no school on Friday because of the EBA Prom. Ali Grace spent the night with her friend Emily on Friday and Addie stayed with Poppy all day. 

The most exciting development this week is........

NANNY AND POPPY are getting a pool! After 42 years of teaching, my Mama is FINALLY retiring. This is her retirement gift to herself and I am so happy for her! If you personally don't want a pool, please don't comment on this blog and rain on her parade. She had a pool back home in Hartwell for 20 or so years. She knows how much work is involved and how much money it costs. Why can't people just have their little money draining hobbies and let other people have theirs? Ugh!! 

This is my daddy checking the grade on the backhoe work. My Daddy really can do anything.

Addie watched the dozer work all day long and as soon as the man turned off the switch Addie was in the dirt hole! 

Colten and Addie played on the dirt hills from the fill dirt all weekend long. They were literally filthy. They looked like dust bowl children.

Ali Grace wouldn't want me to tell anyone, but she played on the dirt hills too!  Ha!

I took this photo as she came out of Mama's house. She had fixed some hot apple cider in Mama's Keurig coffee maker. She said, "Ahh Mama I feel like a college girl who just stepped out of Starbucks with a cappuccino! It really cracked me up.

We are gearing up for the CRCT this week at LMS and I despise this time of year. However, at least it's an indicator that the end is near. Can't wait to get on summer schedule! 

Beaches, Bums and a Bubba!

The two weeks leading up to spring break were beautiful. In fact, it was so pretty here I was just certain that spring break would be rainy or cold. 

Addie rode her bike... yes, in the dirt. Yes, in her Lydia Jane summer linen capri pants.. 

Roxy the wonderdog, escaped from the house a few times. She sneaks by the girls on their way  to get their bikes and by the time she blows by them, they're already well across the road on their way to Nanny and Poppy's. Roxy always looks back at them like "Ha! You left the gate open SUCKA!"

A week or so before spring break, lightning struck our house. I came home from work and was picking up the girls from Poppy's house and I heard my alarm going off across the road. Francisca was already on her way over to check it out. It's never good when your housekeeper comes out of your house yelling FUEGO! Luckily there was no fuego, only smoke. Lightning hit the soffit and shook the window enough to bust it out. I called my Daddy and he put out the smoldering with the garden hose. We have a horrible insurance company and I'm actually sitting here three weeks later with my front atrium window STILL busted out. Don't get me started on ANPAC. Pick someone else. That's all I have to say about that. Well one more thing... we still have no hot water on the left hand side of the house and despite the fact that I have 5 bathrooms in this house, I am showering in the MUD ROOM shower which is about the size of a locker! Yes, I have some hostility about it.

The girls played outside almost every day leading up to spring break. They were EXHAUSTED almost every night. Roxy was tired after her prison break too!

 The week before the break, Edmund Burke Academy held it's spring concert. The theme was "America's Favorite Folk Songs". I had a great time watching these boot clad kids sing! They were just adorable!

And then we started a six day beach trip that was just about perfect! My sister in law, Beth, came down with my nephew, Colten and spent the night Friday night. Early Saturday morning we headed south to Florida.  These pictures were taken our first day there, at Canova Beach, near Palm Bay.

These two refuse to put the tie around their ankle. They're definitely Georgia surfers!

While we were in Cocoa Beach, we went on a dolphin/manatee sightseeing tour. The captain of our catamaran was a former science teacher. She was very knowledgeable about the Banana River and the Thousand Islands area. 

To entertain the kids while moving to another sightseeing area, she gave the kids some shells and a shell book to figure out what types of shells they were.

For the rest of the week, we hit several different beaches. I think my favorite was the one across from Patrick AFB. We had a great time watching the HUGE cargo planes come in for a landing.

Addie lost her second front tooth while we were there. You can sort of see her snaggle toothed smile in this pic!

Thanks to my fabulous cousin in law, Goran "The Swede" for providing this nice Swedish flag towel. It protected my Irish skinned Ali Grace from melanoma. 

We really had a fabulous spring break. It was topped off with a wonderful Easter Sunday. The girls were beautiful in their dresses and a Georgia Bulldog won the Masters.. Seriously- how much better could it be?

Emily visits The Ponderosa

This weekend we were lucky enough to have Ali Grace's friend Emily visit. She rode home from school with Ali Grace and they stayed up until the wee hours of the morning giggling, screeching and talking about whatever it is tween girls talk about at 2am.  They slept in until about 9 and hitched a ride in the bed of the farm truck out to the riding arena this morning. The weather was PERFECT for saddling up.

While the adults saddled up, the kiddos had breakfast "farm style" served on the bed of a trailer!  It worked out just fine until Addie and Emily wandered off and the the dogs took off with the cinnamon rolls. 

Addie has always loved to sing while she rides a horse. I don't know why she does that, but usually she will close her eyes and sing a song while she's on horseback. It's too cute! It's a good thing Peaches knows where she's going, or Nanny had the lead rope!

I always love watching Ali Grace ride a horse. She's true to her name and is so graceful when she rides.

Right after lunch, Addie packed her bags to head north! She is going with Nanny and Poppy to visit Uncle Ernie, Aunt Beth and Colten for the night. She cannot wait to see their new baby goats! It's a gorgeous weekend y'all! Get outside and enjoy it! 

I know it's been forever since I've blogged. I've been a little uninspired lately. Add that to a ridiculously demanding schedule, and you a have a recipe for blogger's block! Ha!  We've had a great week here. Both girls got straight As on their report cards. Ali Grace worked hard to pull her math grade up from a B on her progress report. I'm also very proud of her reading progress. She's read some tough books lately including Esperanza Rising and War Horse. Both books tackle some pretty intense social issues and we've had some good discussions come about after her questions. 

The weekend was gorgeous here. Saturday was windy and a little chilly, so even though it looked beautiful outside, we mostly stayed inside and listened to Addie's incessant bump ba bump upstairs. She recently taught herself to jump rope and while I'm so proud of her, I do wish we had insulated floors and ceilings. Mercy it sounds like a thunderstorm moving in every time she gets a wild hair to jump rope. One of Pete's old ABAC friends was up from Florida and spent the night last night. I really enjoyed meeting her, but I'm not sure she'll be back to the Ponderosa after being awakened at 7am by a jump roping 7 year old! Luckily, today looked and FELT gorgeous outside and the girls spent most of the afternoon jumping on the trampoline and swinging on the rope swing. Thank goodness for children who love the outdoors!

Roxy, however, does not enjoy the outside. I'm working on it though. I am thinking about getting her a little life preserver and taking her little rotten butt kayaking soon. That will be a hoot and a half don't you think? Look at her in this picture. She's challenging me! I know she is!